Successful companies do not hesitate to use a strategic planning consultant to help them identify the best opportunities for growth. They recognize that a consultant can bring a fresh and independent perspective, as well as tools and methodologies to support smart business decision making.

Fortune 500 companies have the resources and in-house expertise to put a Strategic Planning team together.

However, small companies are in a different position. They often lack the resources and expertise. In addition, management cannot afford to be solely focused on strategic planning, neglecting the day-to-day operations.

Now, this does not mean that a small company should not do strategic planning to set a course for the future. On the contrary, especially small companies need to be very thoughtful about where and how to deploy their limited resources to get the best ROI.

A Strategic Planning consultant provides expertise and can enhance the strategic planning team, guiding the planning process to be more thorough, objective and rational.[Read more…]

Corporate culture has a significant impact on your business. Attitudes, mindset, communication, and decision making are all for the large part driven by corporate culture.

The impact of corporate culture can be felt at all levels of an organization. It is, in essence, a company’s DNA. In practical terms, we can think of corporate culture as the habits of the organization and how things get done.

Most firms do some kind of annual strategic planning, in some form or another. It is important to recognize that corporate culture impacts the effectiveness of the strategic planning process as well as the quality of the decisions made and the implementation.

Management guru Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In other words, if the corporate culture does not encourage open minded strategic thinking and bold, confident decision making, as well as committed implementation, all strategic planning efforts are futile.

Is your company’s strategic planning an annual two day retreat at the local country club that feels much the same as last year’s? Nothing ground breaking, insightful or controversial gets discussed. If you basically just ‘check the box’ on strategic planning you should take a good look at the corporate culture and its effect on the planning process.

Corporate Culture Can Hurt Your Business

Here are a number of company culture characteristics that contribute to an ineffective strategic planning process, weak decision making, flawed strategies and poor execution.

1. Ego

Corporate culture is difficult to change, but ego in the executive suite may very well be the most difficult to change because it usually involves the owner / founder / CEO.

A CEO with a big ego thinks he/she knows it all, does not allow for contrarian views, does not ask open ended questions, or solicits input. In this environment the other executives are often no more than worker bees, yes-men, and their experience and insights are not valued and underutilized.

It is not hard to see how a company’s performance can be jeopardized if the person at the top does not allow for input from others. Any strategic planning decisions will simply reflect the CEO’s opinion, right or wrong. The strategy is usually rather grandiose, not well though out, and lacking buy-in from the rest of the organization.

2. Lack of Insight

Past successes can lead to a management team becoming complacent. They start taking future success for granted. Often, these companies are overly focused on operations and the day-to-day problems. They tend to neglect developing a longer term perspective. Executives do not monitor business conditions as well as they should, if at all. Changes in market conditions, customer behavior, technology, the economy, all impact the business.

If management fails to develop real insight into what’s happening in the dynamic market place, they are not able to see new opportunities nor can they anticipate any threats to the business.[Read more…]

Services play an increasingly important role in the US economy. Adding services can be an important strategy for manufacturers looking to differentiate themselves from the competition. However, it’s important to realize that marketing these services should be approached differently from marketing products.

Services and products are quite different in nature. It is important to be aware of this, both for the service delivery and for how a firm markets its service offerings.

Services Are Different

A product provides benefits to the user because of what it does, its functions and physical characteristics. On the other hand, a service is intangible. A service can be:

An intangible act, such as legal services, financial services, education, medical care, or consulting, just to name a few.

An activity performed by the service provider that requires the presence and involvement of the customer. For instance, a medical procedure, a hair cut, fitness training. The customer must to be present and involved in the process, in one way or another.

An activity applied to someone’s business, home, or other possessions. For instance, lawn care, car repair, house painting, dry cleaning, or janitorial services.

Do you take a strategic approach to pricing your products? Do you make pricing decisions in reaction to competitors or are price levels carefully determined to take advantage of strategic opportunities in the marketplace? Value Based Pricing can make a significant impact on corporate profits.

Pricing not only impacts short-term profitability, but you also need to consider the longer term effects of the reactions of customers as well as competitors to price changes. Pricing is a ‘marketing tool’ and impacts your branding and positioning.

Few companies are strategic and proactive about price setting. As a result, they see lower profits and do not fully take advantage of pricing as an important element of their branding and positioning efforts.[Read more…]

Whether you’re selling to businesses or consumers, your company’s success depends on your understanding of what customers are looking for, what they’re buying and why. Marketing Research can provide the answers to the questions that are critically important.

You have to ask some important questions before considering developing a product or service and going to market: [Read more…]